Planning Commission/City Council Joint Meeting Recap!
This was the first meeting for our general plan. After receiving all the citizens input after 2 open houses and online and written surveys, these two entities joined together to discuss the changes that will need to be made.
Having this meeting at Highmark was really nice. We were able to hear much better than at the FAC and able to see. The bleachers were a little hard after 4 hours, but we had pizza and snacks for all so that was a bonus! We had over 100 people who showed up and many stayed for the whole portion.
As usual, I wrote a lot of notes and don't know how to slim it down. The process of this meeting was really to go through it section by section just like the survey. City Manager Dave Larsen would talk about prominent things in each section, review what most public comment mentioned/discussed and then allowed the PC/CC to make comments/feedback. I will try to give a brief feedback to each section.
Intro: It was decided that being a gateway to recreation wasn't as clearly defined and we could do better. Discussion about what kinds of commercial could/should be added and where took place. They also talked about how this discussion of types of commercial has been talked about and goals have been set but no plan was made - how do we put that plan into action? Talk about downsizing the allowable units per acre, as well as possibly keeping larger lots more prominent on the plan and becoming known for the community that only does larger lots happened.
Citizen Involvement: Many of the CC/PC commended the amazing public involvement and gave thanks to those who have been working hard to get the word out. A discussion on how the city can be better at that and the potential (and how to's) of adding a citizen's committee of some sorts took place. Other ways currently underway was updates to the city website, email lists and looking into live streaming meetings.
Moderate Income Housing: The PC/CC reviewed the most selected options of Senate Bill 34 according to the survey. All were in agreement of choosing the ones that had the least amount of impact and how to implement them into our city. In the end, they whittled the choices down to Option L- preserving existing MIH (not tearing down buildings that currently serve for MIH which is mostly the apartments), Option B - facilitate infrastructure for growth (updates to our sewer, west end reservoir and even water lines like recently discussed would apply) and Option U which was submitting for grants for numerous projects (many of which we have already applied for). Just to be clear, the decision on these options was not made as it was a work meeting only. However more than likely these will be the options they will submit to the state.
Existing Environment: Much of this focus was on our sensitive lands. The fact that we have numerous studies showing the concerns of our slopes was discussed and if it could be added that no building or development on our slopes could be added to the general plan. Other hazards/concerns were also discussed and thought about being added as well including wetlands, easements, landslides, fire, wind and railroads. Staff also said they suggested to look into and re-evaluate our maximum buildout acreage and population numbers.
Land Use: Only the first little part of land use was discussed which happened to be the 5 proposed High Density Housing zones. 51% of the surveys responded to this question that none of these properties should be HDH. A lot of talk about changing our codes and our units/acre was discussed. A new moderate and patio home zone as well as dropping our highest units per acre, currently at 13, down to 8 was also suggested. This was where the meeting ended. Staff will look into further defining these new zones and logistics.
The next meeting for this will probably be November 12th, also held at Highmark. Stay tuned for more details on that. This will be a bit of process as there is so many things to look at and discuss. I just want to let you all know all the work and time that everyone put into doing the survey was worth it!! Many, many times tonight our officials referred back to what the citizens want and the comments that were submitted. The process is working! I would just like to thank all our officials once again for all the hard work and time they put into our beautiful city and thank you all here for betting involved and staying involved!
#SWmorethan20
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